Lean education at University of Minho: Aligning and pulling the right requirements geared on competitive industries

Abstract

Modern day engineering practitioners are required to be skilful and knowledgeable in Lean Manufacturing, so that a mindset of perfection and efficiency is effectively established to foster competitive and mature industries. The alignment of what the universities teach and what the industries need, should be ceaselessly pursued so that the right professional competences are developed and thoroughly applied. In this context, a number of competences is ought to be developed, and a number of instructional strategies can be used to promote active learning and student centered education. A growing need for Lean competences was recently observed in the northern region of Portugal, and the corresponding rise on Lean MSc dissertations, in the local industry, followed. The Department of Production and Systems at University of Minho, in Portugal, has been introducing Lean in some curricula aiming at a larger audience and using a number of instructional strategies targeting more effective learning. The approaches taken to Lean instruction were scrutinized leading to a number of relevant findings, among which the identification of the ultimate customers and the value-add competence development activities, as well as a number of strategies that promote continuous improvement and enable pulled and levelled competence development. This markedly contrasts with the more traditional lecturer-centered pushed instruction.